Elvin Bishop first came to prominence alongside fellow Blues Hall of Fame guitarist Michael Bloomfield as a member of the influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the 1960s and has since carved his own niche both as a hit making roadhouse rocker and as a multiple Blues Music Awards recipient. The blues bug bit Bishop when he heard Jimmy Reed and others on the radio as a teenager in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was born in Glendale, California, on October 21, 1942, but grew up on an Iowa farm and in Tulsa, and his persona and music reflect his rural roots, wit and humor, and an appreciation of a wide range of sounds, including blues, rock, soul, gospel, and country.
Bishop attended the University of Chicago on a scholarship in 1960, ostensibly to study physics, but the city’s thriving blues scene became his laboratory, with guitarist Little Smokey Smothers his prime instructor. His productive partnership with Paul Butterfield yielded several historic albums, his guitar work coming more to the fore as the years passed. In 1968, Bishop struck out on his own, drawn to another fertile musical landscape in the San Francisco Bay Area. While he never lost his blues chops, his music took a new direction when he recorded his first albums for Epic, and then for Capricorn. Five of his Capricorn albums, led by Struttin’ My Stuff, made the pop charts from 1974 to 1978, as did five singles, including his biggest hit, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” Several competing Best of Elvin Bishop compilations from his ’70s work later hit the market.
A return to more blues-based showcases for his guitar, vocals, and songwriting began in 1988 with a series of albums for Alligator, Blind Pig, and Delta Groove, including a collaboration with Little Smokey Smothers and albums with guests such as James Cotton and B.B. King. Bishop was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015, the same year he took home Blues Music Awards for Album and Song of the Year (“I Can’t Even Do Wrong Right”).